Almost 600K overseas Pinoys seen to vote in 2022 polls

MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said close to 600,000 Filipino voters abroad are expected to participate in next year’s elections, as it also expects to register another 1.6 million overseas voters.

“The estimated number of voter turnout, we’re looking at would be about 580,212 and for the number of possible registrants for overseas voting is at 1,657,750,” lawyer Philip Luis Marin of the Comelec’s Office for Overseas Voting (OFOV) said in a virtual press briefing on Friday.

Marin added that they are hopeful for an increase in the turnout among overseas voters.

“We already have a budget already being proposed for voter information campaign abroad and locally. We hope that this will increase voters’ participation,” the poll body official said.

Marin also reported that the voter turnout in the past elections has increased.

“In terms of turnout, from 2010 to 2016 there is a significant increase. In 2010, some 100,000 plus turnout but in 2016 it’s about 400,000 plus so it increased significantly the turnout for presidential elections. In the midterm polls, it also increased in 2007 to 2013 to 2019 polls,” the OFOV added.

On the other hand, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the number is a conservative estimate considering that the country is in the middle of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.